I have been looking at 700 and 900 series as well as the 850s to buy for my son for a first car. I was wondering what all I should know and what I should look while in my quest. It would be a higher miles car, likely over 100k, and I would just like to know all the things I should look for in buying one. Thank you

 

Well the biggest difference is that the 700 and 900 series Volvos are rear wheel drive while the 850, V70, C70 and S70 are front wheel drive. 93 was the first year for the 850 in the USA, so I would stay away from that year.

When I bought all three of my kids there first cars I went for cheap used Japanese cars. They each beat the heck out of them too. Now my daughter and son both have nice Volvo's and my other daughter has a real nice Acura and a mechanic as a husband. I just think that 90-94 Honda Accord is the best car you can get for a first car.

The Volvo are rather expensive to maintain and not that easy to work on. If you really want one though they are great cars. Make sure you get one with a good maintenance record and have a pre-purchase inspection done by a certified Volvo mechanic. That way you will know what you are buying.

 

Greetings from Chicagoland.

Well, Mr. JimKW has stated pretty much I wanted to say (excellent opinion, I mean), so my reply will be short.

I would stay away from rear-wheel drive cars for your son's first car, as RWD cars are a bit difficult to handle, especially in slippery condition. I would also stay away from cars that are either old (more than 8 years old) or have too many miles (over 80,000 miles). You wouldn't want your son to get stranded. Cars with ABS is definitely a good safety factor.

You might want to check each car's reputation by something like Consumer Reports magazine. While some people laugh at the magazine (without any logical reason), it gives you reports based on actual testing/data, so it is at least a reference.

Judging from my experience (and a bit of prejudice), cars that are over 8 years old/have over 80,000 miles may require somewhere between $500 and $3,000 (or more in rare cases) for repair, just to make them as good as they should be. The reason is many people neglect the owner's guide and scheduled maintenance, or they simply abuse cars.

I wish you luck in finding a decent car for your son.

Sincerely,


JPN

 

I agree with all comments being stated. I would certainly want to know the service history with the timing belt. Have a mechanic check over the brakes (I have had rotor problems until recently). An 850 Turbo is a solid car but is expensive and hard to maintain because many items have to be purchased from the dealer or on line. I love my 850 however!


SD

 

If you live somewhere where rust is a factor, I would avoid all Honda(s). I own a 1993 Honda Accord EX. I do not drive it in the snow, because every single one of them rust above the rear bumper at the rear wheel wells.

Lately, I have been recommending 1993-1994 and 1995-1999 Nissan Maxima SE(s). All FWD. These model years are the ones before they grew into the size of large American luxury cars. All Maxima(s) after 1995 have timing chain (no scheduled maintenance - never replaced) instead of timing belt.

After 2000, I have been recommending Nissan Altima(s).

Not just any Nissan Altima, but a...

Nissan Altima SE-R

It has Maxima's 3.5L V6 engine, instead of traditional 2.5L V6.

http://www.forbes.com/vehicles/2005/...17test_ls.html
http://www.rsportscars.com/eng/cars/altima_se-r.asp


http://www.rsportscars.com/foto/01/altimaser06.jpg


http://www.rsportscars.com/foto/01/t...6_08_small.jpg

The two major advantages of owning a Volvo 850 are lack of rust and its ability to absorb energy during a crash. Look at accident photos of a Volvo, everything collapses except the cabin -- the side windows don't even break.

--------------------------------------------
If you care anything about performance, shop for a VIN 57 VIN 58 850 or a VIN 53 S70. Model year 1995 and some 1996, have ODB-I. Most model year 1996 and 1997 have ODB-II.

If you are concerned about mileage, then have your local friendly neighborhood dealership perform a visual inspection and an engine compression test (about $130). At least, perform a cooling system leakdown test. I placed the pump at the cooling system reservior tank. Be careful that it doesn't fly off under pressure. There shouldn't be any leaks at 18 psi.

Find your Volvo on-line...
http://lycos.indianapolis.oodle.com/cities
http://www.autotrader.com
http://www.cars.com -- on-line listings from classified ads of local newspapers
http://www.craigslist.com -- click on on-line classified ads from your city
http://www.backpage.com/classifieds/index
http://www.us.buysell.com/brand/ustrader/splash.aspx

Utility for searching gov't records...
http://www.carfax.com

Utility for identifying model year, make, model, trim of vehicle...
http://vin.stronghold.com

10th position of VIN indicates model year...
S - 1995
T - 1996
V - 1997
W - 1998

4th position of VIN determines sedan/wagon...


5th and 6th position of VIN indicated engine code...
53 - MY98 S70 T5 with turbo
55 - MY93-97 850 with DOHC 2.4L I5 with no turbo
56 - MY97 850 GLT with DOHC 2.4L I5 with small turbo at 6 psi
57 - MY93-97 850 Turbo with DOHC 2.3L I5 with large turbo at 9.5 psi
58 - MY95-97 850 R with DOHC 2.3L I5 with large turbo at 9.5 psi (10.5 for initial 20 secs)

 

For the 2000+ Altima, the SE-R adds nothing but bigger wheels and tires, different ground effects and badging. Springs/struts, engine, brakes, etc are all identical to the Altima 3.5SE and both offer manual transmissions, yet you can find a 3.5SE for about $1.5k less and are far more plentiful.

As for a car to recommend, I would also look at Toyota Camry's. You aren't going to really go wrong with a Honda Accord/Civic or Toyota Camry/Corolla. Honestly, Volvos are no more expensive to maintain if you can maintain them yourself. - AB

 

Thanks for the info. I am not as familiar with cars built after 1998 as much as I would like to be.

 

I recommend a Volvo/Saab. I was recently in the market for cars (this is my first) and these are the observations I noticed.

Japanese Cars are HUGELY overpriced. I saw cars from '92 w/ 180k miles going for $3000. It's quite rediculous.

Volvos run well and they are safe. The only problem w/ my car, is that the brakes feel soft and the suspension is squeaky. I got a 850 Turbo w/ 124k miles for $3500. Shoulda been lower, but there was no bargaining.

You can get Domestics which have much lower milage and are newer. If your car is in the late 90's, it shouldn't be that bad reliability wise. I think people blow it out of proportion. The domestics of today aren't that far behind, it's all a perception.

Saabs may also be a good choice. Make sure you do your reserach because the 9000 only has 1 airbag. I liked the Volvo because it was safe, relible, quick (turboed ) and all those things made insurance pretty cheap since it's also pretty old. I think for liability, it's 200-300 but it's going to be reevaluated in 6 months.

So long as the car has been treated well and you can get some good service records, you should be ok. Typically RWD is for sports cars, so you may want to take that into consideration.

Let me know if you got more questions. Just do your reserach and take your time and you can sometimes find very good deals. Anycar w/ over 150k miles should not sell for more than 5000 no matter what kind of condition IMO.

 

The main thing that stands out to me about choosing a car for a new driver is safety.

Many new drivers think they have some sort of divine dispensation when it comes to having an accident, e.i. it can't happen to them!

This is where Volvos are brilliant. I have had the dubious pleasure of being shirt-fronted by big kangaroos which (1) wiped out a Cressida and (2) hardly damaged a Volvo 850.

At our house we have a 1988 240 wagon (a staid, well-behaved old matron) that my wife loves to drive and a 1995 850 turbo wagon (it goes like the clapper) that I love driving and a 2001 Nissan dual cab ute with a massive bullbar (to prevent this Jap crap from folding up).

While these two vehicles are blood relations they are quite dissimilar except for one thing, the built-in Volvo safety factor.

As you son learns by experience that being on the road is simply a matter of survival - he will soon come to appreciate the sense of security a Volvo gives.

 

Honestly, I like the Luxury. Leather Seats/Heated Seats. Hahaha.

Suspension is crap and my ac/heating isn't great either. Heating works, but it's not really really good.

And I forgot to add German cars to my post. Someone told me don't go german because apparently they couldn't make a working o2 sensor until the late 90s.

 

i live in a part of Australia where you run across the odd big kangaroo.

I have had two arguments with these giant hopping fleas, the first basically wrote a Toyota Cressida off; while the second one - only last week - hardly put a dent in the Volvo (broken light and grill) when I hit a big one @ about 100 kmh (60 miles per hour).

I thought the wagon would have been absolutely wrecked - and even the panel beaters I took it to for damage assessment were very impressed by the way the Volvo stood up to it all.

 

Hello Mr. Volgrrr,

Greetings from Chicagoland, U.S.

As a native of Japanese, I'm sorry to hear that you had negative experience with, well, Jap crap. You're right, Japanese cars usually use lighter-gage steel in order to achieve better fuel economy. When it comes to safety, European cars are usually the best (In Japan, profit always comes first, safety is usually second or third, or worse). Even people in Japan know it, and they often refer to domestic cars as "used Kleenex" when accidents happen. I believe that some luxury cars have improved safety lately (Lexus, Acura & Infinity), but I believe average pax-cars are still using lighter-gage steel. Therefore, the entire car is "crumple zone", including the pax compartment.

Yes, Volvo seems to use heavy-gage steel, thus better protection. The only drawback, though, is that when it dies on the road you'll have difficulty pushing it off the road (I had to do this and could not push much, the car was heavy!).

I wonder hitting a kangaroo is like hitting a deer, moose or cow. I see deer everywhere in Chicago, and at night I slow down.

>Many new drivers think they have some sort of divine dispensation when it comes to having an accident, e.i. it can't happen to them!

I agree 100%. However, even non-new drivers think the same, and there are MANY of them!

Again, I'm sorry about the Jap crap. I wonder if thousands of Japanese tourists in Australia have given you a bad image about Japanese people. After having lived in the U.S. for approx. 11 years, I do have a bad image about J... never mind. I am not looking forward to going back to Japan after my work visa expires.

By the way, I work at O'Hare airport as an airplane mechanic and SAS (Scandinavian) serves candies named "Japp". It's probably pronounced as "yap", but I thought it was cute.

Cheers,


JPN

 

Hi. Michael from Kansas City here and I'm looking for a non-minivan (wife's request) to replace my problematic 160K '98 Honda Odyssey. I'm on a budget of around 10-12K. After reading through this forum for reliability & recommendations, I think I've found an older V70 that's been (very) well-maintained, with records, an actual grannymobile being sold by her son:

Grannymobile

Listing does not say, but I've chatted with the son and it has 67K. I'm not a car-person, but I do change oil and I don't ignore noises. I can afford to have the car maintained by my mechanic who works on Volvos (who said "just no AWDs!"). My wife for some reason loves this older style, and wants some of that budget mentioned above for a house-remodelling project. Did I mention she's cheap? Which I am NOT complaining about, but I just want a reasonable probability that she won't get stranded on the road with three kids. I'm willing to fork over the whole pile for a newer V70. Any advice?

UPDATE:

sorry, I posted this in the 850 forum by mistake. Tried to delete and can't find.

 

A 98 V70 with only 67K sounds like a great buy to me as long as the price is reasonable. What model is it? If it's a GLT it has the Low Pressure Turbo. That's the model I have and it's been great. Most say that 98 was the best year for Volvo. 99 was the first year Ford got involved in the company.

I was going to delete the post for you, but it's fine in the 850 forum. It's basically the same car for the 98 model.

 

I do all my own mechanic work and will tackle about anything. For my daughter at HS graduation I bought her a 94 940. Got a great deal on it. $1500 3 years ago. It needed an exhaust system, fluid flush, front struts, belts and a tuneup. 8 weeks ago while in PA at college, she got rear ended and the car was totalled. The Volvo did its job. I replaced it with a 94 850 N/A with 107K miles. It needs some exhaust work, I replaced the timing belt. Worked on some of electricals. Got the keyless entry working finally. If you cannot do this yourself, it can get expensive real fast. BUT she has a safe car. The biggest issue now is that I have the car since she is in PA. and I drive it all the time. Despite snows on all 4 wheels, it is still much quieter than my 2000 Intrepid ES. I'm now gettting 25MPG average after replacing the O2 sensor and using mid-grade fuel. Regular fuel resulted in 2-3 less MPG. I like it alot, but with the Fordization of Volvo, and the horror stories I'm hearing on the newer Volvos, I will not be buying.

 

Another important aspect about the 850 is that in 1995 all trim levels got side airbags standard. So if you do get an 850, try to find a 95 or newer.

 

All three of mine are 98 or older. Pre Ford, but I do like the S60 Turbo quite a bit. I also like the C70 convertible with a five speed and high pressure turbo.